Melanin and Melanocytes
In conventional medicine, sky hyperpigmentation treatment does not consider how melanin and melanocytes actually function in the body.In this section, we’re going to focus on melanin. Melanin is produced by melanocytes. Melanocytes are special cells that are located in the following places in the body:
- Skin
- Eyes
- Ears
- Vagina
- Rectum
- Spinal meninges (tissues surrounding the spinal cord and brain)
- Bones
- Heart
- Endocrine Glands
- Brain
- Pineal Gland
- Substantia Nigra
- Locus Coerleus
- Paranigralis
- Intracopularis
- Nervitrigemini
- Mesencephalon
- Pontis Centralis Aratis
- Tegmenti Pedennculopontis
- Parabrachnalis
- Medialis Dorsomotor
- Retroambiligualis
A cursory scan through this list of melanin-producing tissues instantly raises questions. Why would the vagina, a dark-cave like structure that is hardly ever exposed to light, need to produce melanin? And why would the inner structures of the ear need to produce melanin? And wait…why would the heart or the bones produce melanin? These are areas of the body that are never exposed to light, right?
If melanin is a substance that’s supposed to protect our bodies from damaging radiation from the sun, why is it located in so many dark places in the body where light never shines?
According to studies into fungi, melanin helps living things interact positively with both material substances and energies in positive ways. Through melanin, living things are able to absorb energy that’s useful and it helps us bind and remove toxins like heavy metals or toxic medications from the body that are harmful to us. These are all relevant and important functions in terms of autism or autoimmune disease. In fact, these functions are all the specific issues that autoimmune disease sufferers face in terms of their health.
Studies into the role of melanin in fungi indicate that melanin truly functions as an armor that protects the body from toxic things in a very general way. It protects the body from heavy metals, from toxic medications, and it protects the body from radiation too (which is why certain types of mold can survive deep inside nuclear reactors). But the interesting thing about melanin is that darkness can actually cause melanin to accumulate in greater quantities in the brains of brown bats. This bat-fact reminds me of how science and biologists told everyone that oxygen was the only useful part of air, but in reality, the so-called byproduct “carbon dioxide” is as vital to human health as oxygen, though in a very different way than oxygen. While we think of light as something that’s emitted and that travels through the air, we think of darkness as nothing but the absence of light. But in reality, on earth and throughout the universe, the absence of light is really just the absence of visible light. With the exception, perhaps, of black holes, darkness might actually be energetically a very active thing that is filled to the brim with heat waves and radiation and sound vibrations and all kinds of energies that our eyes and ears and touch receptors or smell receptors can’t normally perceive. Being exposed to darkness that is enriched with these energies seems to build melanin levels in the brains of brown bats perhaps because melanin helps our bodies sense different forms of energy that are on a spectrum beyond what our normal senses are able to perceive.
The Origami of Autism: Transforming 2-Dimensional Thinking about ASD into 3-Dimensional Solutions - BUY HERE!The presence of melanin in the ears, vagina, rectum, heart, spinal meninges, and bones points to the idea that this substance does more than just protect the body from sunlight exposure. But in this chapter, I want to bring focus to the idea that melanin plays a role in autism and ASD, autoimmunity, and other serious diseases. Melanin is a big topic and one that deserves a lot of attention and study, but in terms of autoimmune disease, I think of melanin molecules as a sort of tiny, organic solar panel that can absorb light and transform it into energy. But melanin also communicates messages to the autonomic nervous system. And it also functions like armor to protect the body from harmful toxins and harmful energies like toxic radiation.
To better understand melanin, let’s consider hypopigmentation in autism and hypopigmentation or hyperpigmentation in autoimmune disease and take a look at autoimmune diseases that produce noteworthy pigmentation issues below. Having too many melanin solar panels (hyperpigmentation) that may be malformed in some way (due to nutrient deficiencies) or too few melanin solar panels (hypopigmentation) that may also be malformed in some way (due to nutrient deficiencies) can lead to autism or “autoimmunity”.
Click here to schedule a health coaching session with us.
Chromophore Basics
A chromophore is the part of a given molecule that imparts color to the substance that’s made with said molecule. As we discussed previously, the color that our eyes see when we are looking out into the world is NOT the actual color of the substance or object. Rather the color that our eyes see is the color that is reflected by that substance or object. The reflection of light from an object or substance must be within the visible wavelength of light. And the chromophore is the area of a given molecule where there is an energy difference between two separate molecule orbitals or energy levels that equals a specific wavelength of light within the visible light spectrum.Visible light happens when the chromophore part of the molecule absorbs a photon of light. A photon is like a package of light-energy. Electrons are able to capture photons of light and use these photons to energize themselves. Electrons within the chromophore that capture a photon of light are able to go up to higher energy levels (orbitals) and fly around at this higher altitude (so to speak), which can cause the atom or substance to change in important ways.
When an electron is excited by a photon, it gets superpowers to move up into areas of the molecule that are normally off-limits to it. In biological molecules, the movement of an excited electron to a different orbital within the chromophone causes the molecule to change shape in important ways.
Click here to learn more and subscribe to the Living Database now.
The electron that received the photon uses the energy to fly around in the higher orbital. When the electron has used up a certain amount of energy though, it begins to fall back to its original location while releasing any excess energy that was left from the photon energy packet. This energy that’s released as the electron falls back into its proper place, is the light energy that our eyes see as visible light.
So, a simpler, less technical way of describing this process of light-exposure, light-capture, molecular shape-change, and light-reflection is to say that when certain molecules inside the body are exposed to light, the light causes the molecule to change shape such that meaningful changes occur in the physiologyl of the living thing that has been exposed to light.
An example of a chromophore that changes shape after capturing a photon of light are red blood cells. Porphyrin moeities in red blood cells bind to iron atoms. In turn, the iron atoms capture oxygen to create a “heme” chromophore. The iron-oxygen “heme” chromophore is what gives blood its bright red color.
Click here to buy a red light therapy device.
The bright red color of blood changes the color of our bodies in profound or slight ways depending on blood flow to the surface of the skin. For example, a person who is flushing has bright pink skin because the capillaries in the skin dilate. Inflammation and fever also can cause increased blood flow that reddens the skin in noticeable ways.Heme, of course, degrades into biliverdin, a blue-green colored substance that can build up to toxic levels to make people appear “green” when they are feeling ill.
In turn, biliverdin is broken down into bilirubin, a yellow colored substance that gives people a yellow skin tone if they are experiencing liver problems. In newborn babies with high levels of bilirubin causing their skin tone to be yellow-ish, doctors apply ultraviolet light to the skin to heal the liver and get rid of the yellowish skin tone of jaundice.
Another example of a chromophore is retinal, a molecule in the human retina that begins as 11-cis-retinal. After capturing a photon of light in the visible light spectrum, it changes shape and straightens out into all-trans-retinal. When it straightens, it pushes against opsin proteins in the retina that then, in turn, triggers a cascade of nerve signals that causes us to perceive light as images in the brain.
Click here to buy The Barefoot Healer's Guide to Autoimmune Disease.
